


Lady of Doma

by JRC



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Big Words are exchanged, F/M, Feels, Female Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Miqo'te Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Named Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Not Smut Believe It Or Not, Patch 4.0: Stormblood Spoilers, it's okay they work it out, these morons finally talk to each other instead of just fucking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:14:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27400060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JRC/pseuds/JRC
Summary: What she wouldn't give to freeze this moment, live in it forever. Simple intimacy with the person who L'lo is beginning to think she might...But her responsibilities are growing more numerous and significant by the day. She cannot linger in Doma forever… no matter how much her heart aches at the thought of leaving. Things may be resolved in Doma and Ala Mhigo for a time, but there will be problems that only she can solve. There are always problems that only she can solve.
Relationships: Hien Rijin/Warrior of Light
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11
Collections: Final Fantasy XIV - Hien Rijin x WoL Recommendations





	Lady of Doma

**Author's Note:**

> :sweats: here..... have some feels. you can blame the writers' workshop Star from the book club ran this week for this piece!

“I would make an excellent Lady of Doma,” L’lo proclaims, flinging herself onto Hien’s back, freshly clean after a soak in his private onsen. She shakes her hair out over his bare back, making the Lord of Doma cry out in mock protest.

“You certainly would,” Hien chuckles, rolling onto his side and spilling L'lo into the futon beside him, then tilting his head back to press a tender kiss to the miqo’te’s jaw.

“...wait, no, Hien, you can’t agree with me. Don’t agree with me!" L'lo giggles, brushing Hien's loose hair out of her face as she swings a leg over his hip, tugging his back flush against her chest. "You know how I do with crowds-”

“I know crowds always adore you-” Hien begins, smirking up at her as he pressed his scarred back into her body, reaching up to wrap an arm around her waist and tug her somehow closer still.

“Because I can’t  _ say _ anything-” L'lo laughingly protests, squirming as Hien's arm worms beneath her torso.

Hien shakes his head, rolling over onto his side until he can wrap both arms around the miqo'te, which he does immediately. “You’re just a little shy, that’s all.”

“I’m also a complete klutz," L'lo is grinning as she argues back now, resting her hands against the uneven plane of his chest. "Do you remember the time I spilled-”

“...sake all over my robes? Yes. It would be hard to forget,” he smirks against her skin, leaning back as she swats at his face with her hand. “The stains didn’t come out afterwards. But you’re such a talented weaver, and I adore the replacement set you made me…”

_ He's too good to her _ . 

L'lo's cheeks flush, and she buries her face in his chest, even as a smile tugs at the corner of her mouth. He  _ did _ wear the replacement robes she had made for him all the time… “Hien, stop. You’re embarrassing me.”

“How? By voicing truths?” he asks, beginning to card his fingers through her hair, one thumb brushing along the fine hairs on the outside of her ear, making it twitch.

What she wouldn't give to freeze this moment, live in it forever. Simple intimacy with the person who L'lo is beginning to think she might...

But her responsibilities are growing more numerous and significant by the day. She cannot linger in Doma forever… no matter how much her heart aches at the thought of leaving. Things may be resolved in Doma and Ala Mhigo for a time, but there will be problems that only she can solve. There are always problems that only she can solve.

She's been avoiding her linkpearl for days already, dreading the inevitable call back to Mor Dhona or perhaps Ala Mhigo if Lyse needs the Scions' assistance with aught. L'lo would never turn her back on her friend, and yet…

Sometimes, she wishes she could afford to be a little selfish.

“By blowing my abilities grossly out of proportion?" L'lo sighs, resting her hand over Hien's steady heartbeat, her own stuttering as she thinks about their inevitable parting. "Foolishly building my hopes that we can somehow make this, make… us... work perfectly?”

“Nothing is perfect, my dear," Hien sighs, not having missed the way the playfulness has drained from her voice. "You, however, come very, very close.”

_ He's too good _ for  _ her _ . 

“Hien…” the miqo'te protests weakly, tucking her face into the juncture between his neck and shoulder. 

_ She doesn't deserve him _ .

“I speak only the truth, my love.”

L'lo's eyes flicker open at that, and she turns them up to Hien's hazel, spring green searching for any hint of mocking or teasing or uncertainty or-

“...your…?” she breathes, heart stuttering in her chest. 

_ Hien loves her?  _

Her mind races through all of the reasons why that must be a mistake. Her ears playing a trick on her. She can feel them flatten against her hair, and Hien's hand stills in its ministrations there.

“My love, yes," Hien affirms, his expression softening, eyebrows knitting together in concern as he looks down at her, cupping her copper cheek in a calloused palm. "My darling Lo. My precious. My dear. My sweet. My Lady of Doma. Are we not at the point yet where I can call you such things?”

“...we are, but…”

“But it hurts you, to think of our parting," Hien concludes, his eyes crinkling at the corners as his lips turn up into a small, sad smile.

His smile breaks her heart. L'lo could cry, if she hadn't trained herself from childhood never to let those closest to her see her cry. “...yes.”

“Lo, we will never  _ truly _ be parted," Hien assures her, leaning in to capture her lips in a slow, tender kiss. He speaks again when he pulls back, resting his forehead against the miqo'te's and cupping her cheek in his hand. "I like to think that I know who you are… your very soul. I have spent so many of my very best moments with you… and I can never forget that. Them. You.”

L’lo’s heart feels like it is shaking, cracking, trembling to pieces within her chest, and she tucks her chin to her collarbone, giving herself some measure of privacy with which to compose herself, to will the tears back, to blink away the stinging in her eyes. “You know I feel the same, Hien, but…”

“But what?” Hien counters, gently sliding his fingers between her chin and her chest, parting the two, and carefully lifting her face back up, his hazel eyes shining with concern. “So what if you’re halfway across the world, Lo?  _ I love you _ .”

She can feel the reaction in her heart before her mind processes Hien’s words. The cracks are mending, shattered fragments skittering back into place, and the whole thing is sealed back into its rightful whole by molten, liquid gold.

_ Hien loves her _ .

The gold solidifies, cementing her heart, finally, back into one whole… for perhaps the first time that she can remember. L’lo feels the tears building, the euphoric realization surging over her like a wave. “I-I love you too…” 

“Lo, are you…?” Hien’s calloused thumb brushes over her cheek, collecting the first traitorous tear to escape the net of her eyelashes. “My love, don’t cry. Come here,” he sighs, tugging L’lo into his arms, and cradling her to his chest, one hand tucking her head against his breast, so she can hear the steady beat of his heart.

“I’m sorry…”

“What have you to be sorry for, hmm? For caring so deeply for me? Lo, I…” his voice breaks, and L’lo chokes out a sob, wrenching her head free of Hien’s hand and looking up at him, now her turn to catch his tears.

“I’m sorry for letting it go this far!” She blurts out, her hands stilling on Hien’s cheeks, frantic spring green eyes searching hazel as she tries to gauge his reaction. 

Hien is silent for a long, telling moment. “So you regret this?” 

L’lo’s heart stops in her chest for a solid moment. 

_ No. _

“You regret… us? You regret me?”

“No, never,” she hastens to reply, shifting to straddle Hien’s hips, squeezing his shoulders tightly. “That’s not what I meant at all. I just… I should have stopped this before…”

L’lo takes a deep, shuddering breath, considering her words carefully. Hien still looks so dumbfounded by her thoughtless remark… she cannot  _ hurt _ him. Better to plunge the knife of their parting into her own heart, so long as Hien is unharmed. 

“I should have stopped this before it… it  _ grew  _ so much. I knew we would never be able to… I knew I could never... stay here with you, not permanently. And now… I’ll have to go soon.” Her voice is trembling now, and L’lo glares towards the corner of the room, where her adventuring back lies slumped innocently against the wall, her linkpearl muffled by several layers of her clothes so she can’t hear its pinging.

“I don’t know when or… or if I’ll be back,” she continues, her voice barely above a whisper as she turns back to Hien, her eyes burning with more foolish tears. “I wish I had… stopped this sooner, so… so that it didn’t have to hurt like this. When I knew all along this was how it would always have to end. With so much  _ pain. _ ”

“Oh, Lo…” Hien smiles through his tears, and reaches up to brush a lock of hair out of L’lo’s eyes. “Love only hurts so much because it’s so powerful. So true.”

“I wouldn’t trade it,” L’lo blurts out, ducking her head to hide her desperation from Hien. “I wouldn’t trade our time together. Not for anything. Not even knowing that we can’t…”

“That we can’t be together like this forever,” Hien finishes her sentence, reaching up to cup her jaw, stroking his calloused thumb over her cheekbone. “We can’t, it’s true,” he murmurs, leaning in to rest his forehead against hers, and L’lo lets out another strangled sob, winding her arms more tightly around his neck, afraid to let him go now that the hour of their parting is so near. “We  _ both  _ knew this couldn’t last forever, Lo. I am just as much to blame for allowing this to continue unchecked for so long as you are. I have to care for Doma, and you have to care for… well, everyone,” he sighs, shaking his head against hers. “But…”

“But?” L’lo asks quietly, hardly daring to hope as she wrenches her head up and searches Hien’s eyes, desperate for some solution that won’t leave her as anchorless as she was before she found him.

“But just because we are far apart does not mean we cannot still love each other,” Hien says gently, offering L’lo a smile with all the love he must feel for her in it, because she has never seen a more beautiful sight in her life. “You will  _ always  _ be welcome to return to me, my love. Nothing can diminish the way I feel for you. I can only pray that you feel some fraction of the same towards me.”

“Some fraction-?” L’lo gasps, another laughing sob bursting from her lips as she throws her arms about Hien’s neck once more, hugging him as close as she can. “I love you, Hien. I have…  _ never _ loved anyone this much. I love you so much it  _ scares _ me. I don’t think… I think that I would struggle, at the very least, if you asked me to leave and never return. But I would respect your wishes.”

“I would never wish for that,” Hien lets out a stuttering sigh beneath her, and L’lo tucks her face against his neck, inhaling the scent of him as he chuckles. “You… have no idea how much it relieves me to hear you say those words, my love.”

“What, I love you?” L’lo chuckles, reaching up to wipe her cheeks dry before she swats playfully at Hien’s ponytail, clamping down hard on her coerl-like urge to continue batting at it as it swings from side to side. “Of course I said it. I meant it, Hien. I love you. And I want… I want you to be happy. I don’t know what that means for you. A new partner... or partners, a marriage, kids… but I… love  _ you _ . And I think… no… I know I will  _ always _ come back to you.”

“I would have it no other way,” Hien breathes reverently into the skin of her collarbone, pressing tender kisses to her copper skin. “I feel the same for you. No matter where you go, who you meet, what you do, who else you love - you will always have a home here, Lo. My Lo. My love. My Lady of Doma,” he smirks, sucking a bruise into the juncture between her neck and shoulder. “Forever mine. No matter who else you may enthrall along the way. Just as I will always be yours.”

**Author's Note:**

> This conversation was coming eventually, I just didn't expect to cry while writing it. Yet here we are... blame the book club.   
> Or just come screech at me there! Emet-Selch's Wholesomely Debauched and Enabling Book Club: https://discord.gg/ME4eAEt


End file.
